Speaker
Description
The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) is the next‐generation very‐high‐energy (VHE)
gamma ray observatory, with two arrays of imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes to
be built in the next few years in La Palma (Spain) and Paranal (Chile). It will cover the
energy range from 20 GeV to more than 300 TeV with a sensitivity up to one order of
magnitude better than the successful H.E.S.S., MAGIC, and VERITAS experiments. Thus, it
is expected to shed light on the origin of the VHE cosmic rays and on the properties of
dark matter particles and other issues in high‐energy physics. The main target of the larger
array at Paranal is the Galactic Center region, containing the largest concentration of dark
matter in our cosmic neighborhood, as well as various other sources of VHE gamma and
cosmic rays. This talk will give a general overview of CTA and its scientific capabilities, with
an emphasis on problems in fundamental physics, such as the nature of dark matter, the
existence of axion‐like particles, and Lorentz invariance violations.
